Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

23Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Turandot – The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House’s latest revival under director Jack Furness of Andrei Serban’s 1984 production is an epic on every scale and a true delight for all of the senses as it delivers the perfect synthesis of music and drama. In legendary Peking, a Mandarin (Blaise Malaba) advises that any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot (Anna Pirozzi) must answer three riddles: if he fails, he will die. Among the crowd Calàf (Yonghoon Lee) discovers his long-lost father, Timur (Vitalij Kowaljow). As the latest failed suitor goes to his death, the crowd implore the princess to spare him, but she orders the execution to proceed. Calàf is transfixed by her beauty and decides to win her heart. Timor and the slave girl Liù (Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha) as well as the ministers Ping (Hansung Yoo),...

Lohengrin – Metropolitan Opera Live in HD

20Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Lohengrin – Metropolitan Opera Live in HD

After nine years of peace, the enemies from the East are threatening again and King Heinrich (Günther Groissböck) arrives in Brabant to understand why it is in such strife and not providing the necessary support. Telramund (Evgeny Nikitin) accuses Elsa (Tamara Wilson) of the heinous crime of having murdered her brother, Gottfried, heir to the Brabant throne, and has also shunned her betrothal to him in favour of Ortrud (Christine Goerke). Elsa recalls a dream of a knight in shining armour who will come to save her and when the Herald (Brian Mulligan) calls for someone to defend her honour, the mysterious knight (Piotr Beczała) appears on the back of a swan. He pledges his troth to her on condition that she never asks his name or origin to which she agrees, and he duly defeats Telramund in ...

Gianni Schicchi – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

13Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Gianni Schicchi – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Gianni Schicchi is one part of Il trittico, a collection of three one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini, with the link in the final work illustrating that each opera deals with the concealment of a death. Whilst originally intended to be played as a set, it has been more usual to play individually or pair with another one-act opera by another composer. Here, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dominic Hindoyan, serve up a further variation with excerpts from different composers providing the warm-up in the first half before the comic deception of Gianni Schicchi, performed in Italian with English surtitles, is unleashed. Commencing proceedings were a couple of Puccini pairings with La Tregenda (Le Villi, Act II) making for an energetic and frenetic start before slipping ...

Opera North: Ariadne auf Nexus – The Lowry

11Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Ariadne auf Nexus – The Lowry

Strauss collides with Fellini in Opera North’s co-production with Gothenberg Opera, as director Rodula Gaitanou relocates the action from 18th Century Vienna to a 1950’s Italian film studio, where another collision takes place as an opera company’s heart-breaking tragedy meets the light musical comedy of a commedia dell’arte troupe, and as the two become merged into one, the result is an absolute delight in both sound and vision. Whilst the film shoot of Ariadne auf Naxos is performed in the original German, the Prologue has been translated from Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s original libretto by Christopher Cowell into a multilingual version that sees the opera Composer (Hanna Hipp) deal with the ensuing mayhem in English although reverting to German for personal reflection, whilst Prima Donn...

10Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Top Girls – Liverpool Everyman

It is forty years since Caryl Churchill’s play first hit the stage and with this anniversary production, director Suba Das has been allowed artistic licence to relocate some of the action from Suffolk to Liverpool 8. Marlene (Tala Gouveia) is at the top of her game as the new Managing Director of Top Girls Employment Agency in the glitz and glamour of 1980s London, with a stylised and surreal opening sequence seeing her host an extraordinary dinner party, assisted by a waitress (Kaila Sharples), to celebrate her achievements with five legendary women, some real, some imagined: Isabella Bird (Elizabeth Twells); Lady Nijo (Nadia Anim); Dull Gret (Sky Frances) of Brueghel fame; Pope Joan (Lauren Lane); and Griselda (Ailsa Joy) straight out of Chaucer, to draw upon their old world experienc...

The Comedy of Errors (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

8Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Comedy of Errors (more or less) – Shakespeare North Playhouse

A Shakespearean comedy set around two rival states and two sets of mismatched twins is brought back to life with its central theme of mistaken identity compounded by deliberate theatrical chaos and a cacophony of musical numbers from the 1980’s in this co-production from Shakespeare North and Stephen Joseph Theatre. An actor, Antipholus (David Kirkbride) arrives in a Yorkshire coastal town with his sidekick Dromio (Oliver Mawdsley) to perform his one man show, but there’s no audience as everyone has booked for a talent show across town starring the twin brother he’s never met, and whose sidekick is also named Dromio. The twin brother owes money but has promised his wife, Adriana (Alyce Liburd) a gold chain. With the Prescot brother falling for Adriana’s unmarried sister, Luciana (Ida...

A Bunch of Amateurs – Rainhill Village Hall

17Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

A Bunch of Amateurs – Rainhill Village Hall

When one of your favourite satirists meets one of your favourite theatre companies what could possibly go wrong? Well for all the right reasons, quite a lot in this ‘love letter to amateur dramatics’ penned by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman and directed by Lynn Aconley. The question is what happens when spoilt, arrogant Hollywood star Jefferson Steel (Gerald Walker) washes up, pursued by journalists (George Lowe; Tom Nevitt), and meets a struggling group of actors including their premier star Nigel Dewbury (Rick Young), the local B&B owner Mary Plunkett (Rosetta Parker) and local handyman Denis Dobbins (Richard Parker), all of whom are capably coordinated by their director Dorothy Nettle (Jo Webster). This is a different kind of Stratford however and with the threat of the venue being s...

Who’s Afraid of Mikey Garland? – Hope Street Theatre

12Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Who’s Afraid of Mikey Garland? – Hope Street Theatre

Drawing upon his own experiences of homelessness from the age of five, Liverpool-based rapper Mikey Garland narrates the course of his life around his debut album of the same title in this production from ArtsGroupie CIC. The show carries a content warning relating to themes which may be triggering to some people, so audience discretion is advised. Garland employs a simple set with minimal props to support the stages of his journey over the course of the last twenty-eight years and this works well given he is a visually engaging performer with numerous costume changes supporting the performance of each of the twelve songs. The stage descends to darkness between songs with a voice over detailing the background experiences in Garland’s life at each point in time. Whilst this effectivel...

<strong>Closure – HOME Manchester</strong>

30Jan

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Closure – HOME Manchester

Alex (Conor Burns) and Laura (Nina Holland-Smith) arrive at a dinner party hosted by Laura’s friend Mia (Faye Draper) where they soon discover that all is not as it seems, in fact they may not even leave alive… Written by Draper and directed by Maz Hedgehog, Closure takes black comedy into its darkest corner as it unravels women’s rights, wrongs, and feminine rage. Understandably there is a trigger warning as the piece contains scenes of violence and drowning, strong language, and distressing themes including reference to rape and sexual assault. First and foremost, this is a play dealing with subjects that are far too often glossed over or avoided so I wholeheartedly welcome it for that alone. It does however need longer than the scheduled hour because the set-up was somewhat hurrie...

<strong>Singing with Friends – Rainhill Village Hall</strong>

21Jan

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Singing with Friends – Rainhill Village Hall

A simple title yet, as director Paul Robinson says in his notes, full of meaning. This was so much more than a show: it was the history of a company that goes back over seventy years; it was the meaning of family that the company has come to embrace; it was the tale of putting on many a production; but most importantly it was the journey and story of many individuals whose combined whole is so much more than these words can do justice. A Broadway musical medley from the entire ensemble with live band accompaniment consisting of Paul Taft (guitar), Kevin Bates (bass) and Amy Gray (drums) led by musical director and maestro on the piano, Wayne Oakes, got the evening off with a bang, with Charlotte Orme injecting some real energy into Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Bet Davies’ pron...